In this photo, I am in a special education classroom recording my observations in my project journal.
Author: Hannah Babin | Major: Communication Sciences and Disorders | Semester: Fall 2022
Hello U of A students! My name is Hannah Babin, and I am a senior in the communication sciences and disorders (CDIS) program. After I complete my bachelor’s degree, I plan to attend graduate school to become a speech-language pathologist (SLP). I completed the United States portion of my honors project in the Fall of 2022, and my honors mentor was Dr. Rachel Glade. My project investigated interprofessional interaction between SLPs, special education teachers, and paraprofessionals (AKA teachers aids) in Ireland versus the United States. I then specifically examined how paraprofessionals function in school-based settings in Ireland versus the United States and related my findings back to the role of an SLP. This project aimed to bring back opportunities to improve interprofessional practice in the United States. This project was completed through an internship experience in school-based settings in the United States and through an education study abroad in Ireland. In both settings, data was documented in a journal to compare the school-based settings.
Choosing my topic for my honors project was an interesting experience for me. As a future SLP, there are many things that will fall under my scope of practice that I could have researched as an undergraduate. There were several areas of interest that I had, but when I discovered the “Education in Ireland” study abroad program I knew this was the path that I wanted to take. I originally planned to compare speech-language pathology in Ireland versus the United States in school-based settings when I began my project. When I arrived in the Irish schools, my project topic shifted to a focus on paraprofessionals. This topic shift was due to the lack of SLPs in school-based settings in Ireland. At first this seemed a little daunting to me because I was worried I wouldn’t have enough information that related to my field, but I quickly realized that this was not going to be an issue for me. This topic expanded my perspective on speech language pathology. I learned that paraprofessionals are essential to an SLP and in special education classrooms. In both countries, they help target objectives in the daily classroom to promote speech and language goals. Without paraprofessionals, students in the special education program would not be getting the assistance they need to be successful.
Furthermore, I will forever be thankful to Dr. Glade for introducing me to this program. Dr. Glade was my professor for Introduction to Research, and I reached out to her via email to see if she would be willing to be my honors mentor. She took me under her wing when another internship idea didn’t work out and helped me find my new topic/internship. I heard about the study abroad program in Ireland from another CDIS student who had Dr. Glade as their honors mentor. The student was investigating the medical side of speech language pathology and was going to Ireland with the health professions. I decided to take a different route on this and look into the education side of the Ireland program. Dr. Glade found out about my interest in study abroad and helped me get all the information that I needed to be successful in this project. I never thought I would have the opportunity to do my project abroad.
Lastly, I presented my project at the state and national level at the Arkansas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ArkSHA) and American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Conference. Both conventions helped me achieve my academic goals by strengthening my public speaking skills. At the ArkSHA convention, I presented my project with a 30-minute PowerPoint presentation. At the ASHA convention, I presented a digital poster presentation that was displayed for professionals and students to come by and ask me questions. My presentations prompted me to articulate my research findings in a clear and concise manner, and these skills are crucial to have as an SLP graduate student. I feel confident that after my presentation at the ArkSHA and ASHA convention that I could be an asset to any graduate program. I never could have imagined myself reaching these heights as an undergraduate student.
Overall, my honors project has helped me grow my critical thinking skills and prepared me for my graduate coursework. I am so thankful to the Honors College for making these experiences possible for me. I am now working on completing my graduate school applications, and I am so excited to continue my studies in speech-language pathology.